APPLE

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Tell Us
Address your questions, answers, and
comments to:
Apple Orchard
908 George Street
Santa Clara CA 95050
We recently installed a small computer
system in our (medical) office. Paper·
work is down, b~t some of our patients
seem less friendly toward us. How com·
mon is this? Can it be lessened? - T.
G., Los Angeles
Once you have a computer system in
your office or store you will notice a
problem you probably did not anticipate.
Your computer is getting in the way of
secretary-patient or clerk-customer
contact
This relationship degenerates when
the patient talks to your employee, who,
at intervals takes time out to bang on the
keyboard. The patient or customer is left
watching the unattractive back of the
computer terminal, a foreign, threating
experience at best It may be practical for
two staff members to handle this pro·
blem: one person talks to the patient
keeping eye contact while the other enters .
data in to the computer.
Another technique is to avoid putting
the computer between the patient and
staff member. Position the terminal on
the side of the desk/ counter. This allows
the patient to directly watch your staff and
be watched in turn.
A third technique is to have a small
monitor facing the patient or customer,
and requesting that he or she check the
data for accuracy as it is entered. Thus,
the client participates. We'd be happy to
hear about any other solutions. - Ellis J.
Neiburger, D.D.S.
My activity at times requires me to send
textfiles over a modem, usually on the
Source. These files should have a car·
riage return at least every 80 characters,
but my Apple Writer/// files don't have
those returns because they're justified
on printout Is there any way I can put in
those carriage returns without having to
do it one at a time? - L F., Anderson, IN
6 Apple Orchard
Yes, there is. While it's not highlighted
as a feature, Apple Writer / / / (and a
number of other word processors) can
be made to print to a Disk ASCII file
instead of a printer, with the format,
including carriage returns, inserted as for
a printer. One hitch with Apple Writer: the
target file name must already be present
in the directory when you do this. So, first
SA VE the file to disk under its " print"
pathname (e.g., " .d2/ PRINTL TR" . Must
be different from the storage name). Now
use CTRL· P, set the print parameters ( LM
0, RM 75, etc.) and replace the print
destination (PD) ".PRINTER" with the
" print" file pathname. At that point, you're
" modifying" the "print" file.
Clear memory and Load the " print"
file. If you make the carriage returns
visible (CTRL·Q;6) you'll see the fomat·
ted document That's sometimes helpful
as a preview too. When transmission time
comes, send the " print" file. -P.C.
Weiglin
We got a computer system that was
touted to do eveiything. It falls short of
our expectations. Shall we junk it? How
do we go back to manual simplicity? -
F. K., Chicago
First, consider that just because you
have been using a full system, you must
de-computerize completely, even though
your frustrations impel you in that direc·
tion. Better to take a few steps back.
Instead of doing all your office functions
via computer, do only a few . . . like client
mailing lists or word processing, appoint·
ments, etc. There is no rule that requires
you to use the computer for every func·
tion. Just sit back and get a simple
program or two and use it Perhaps
sometime in the future there will appear a
full office program that you can use and
enjoy ... but until then, you can still bene·
fit from computerization.
What happens when your system works
perfectly but the hardware has glitches
that render life unpleasant? Cut out the
defective unit, wind down and sit back
until a functioning improvement or re·
"placement is made . . . then get it and
start up.
The important key is that computeriza·
tion is for your benefit and when it ceases
to work well ... change. You are not
committed to use your system all the
time and times do change. If it pays to
stop computerizing for a while, do so. You
will be able to pick things up a little later
on. - Ellis J. Neiburger.
BASIC Compare 111
BASIC Compare Ill is a program
which will permit you to compare
two Apple Ill Business BASIC programs
(preferably two versions of
the same program) and print the
differences on a printer, display on
a console, or send to disk. If you do
much programming, you will soon
find out how useful this can be,
especially if you follow the good
programming practice of not overwriting
the old version of a program
with the new.
Requires Apple Ill Business
BASIC. Program by Mike Kramer.
Send $25.00 to:
908 George Street
Santa Clara, CA 95050
61/2% Sales tax for California Residents